Sarah Perry
| Sarah Perry | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
28 November 1979 Chelmsford, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | Royal Holloway University |
| Period | 2003 - present |
Sarah Grace Perry (née Butler) is an English author, academic, and journalist. She was born in 1979 in Chelmsford, Essex. She has a PhD in creative writing from Royal Holloway University where her supervisor was Sir Andrew Motion. She has had two novels published, both by Serpent's Tail: After Me Comes The Flood (2014) and The Essex Serpent (2016).
Early life
Born into a family of devout Christians who were members of a Strict Baptist chapel, Perry grew up with almost no access to contemporary art, culture, and writing. She filled her time with classical music, classic novels and poetry, and church-related activities. She says this early immersion in old literature and the King James Bible profoundly influenced her writing style.[1]
Academic career
Her PhD thesis was on the Gothic in the writing of Iris Murdoch, and she has subsequently published an article on the Gothic in Aeon magazine.[2][3]
I wrote about the power of place in my PhD thesis, particularly the importance of buildings in the Gothic (a genre which I find myself inhabiting without ever having meant to). Fiction in the Gothic inheritance makes much of the potent importance of the interior, from the castle where Jonathan Harker finds himself holed up to Thornfield, and from the suburban homes in Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black to the ghastly crypts in The Monk.
In 2013 she was a writer in residence at Gladstone's Library.[4]
Journalism
Perry continues to work as a legal journalist. She also writes on the arts, and her articles on both subjects have appeared in a number of publications including The Spectator, The Guardian, and The Oldie. [5]
Novels
Perry's debut novel, After Me Comes the Flood, was released in 2014 by Serpent's Tail, receiving high praise from reviewers including those of The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.[6] The novel tells the story of a man named John Cole who wanders into a strange world while seeking out his brother amidst a drought. John Burnside of The Guardian called it "extraordinary" and "a remarkable debut." [7]
Her second novel, The Essex Serpent, was also - appropriately - published by Serpent's Tail in 2016. Inspired by the myth of a sea-serpent on the Essex coast, it tells the story of a Victorian widow, Cora Seaborne, and the friends who surround her after the death of her bullying husband. Cora is intrigued and compelled by the possibility of the serpent's return, but clashes with the local vicar, William Ransome, who is determined to lay superstition to rest in his rural parish. The novel, again written in a gothic style, explores themes of goodness, friendship, superstition and love and once again received superb reviews; John Burnside in The Guardian wrote, "Had Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker come together to write the great Victorian novel, I wonder if it would have surpassed The Essex Serpent? No way of knowing, but with only her second outing, Sarah Perry establishes herself as one of the finest fiction writers working in Britain today."[8]
Awards
Perry won the 2004 Shiva Naipaul Memorial prize for travel writing for 'A little unexpected', an article about her experiences in the Philippines.[5][9]
On 22nd November 2016, The Essex Serpent was nominated in the Novel category for the 2016 Costa Book Awards.[10]
"The Essex Serpent" was named Waterstones Book Of The Year 2016. [11]
References
- ↑ Sarah Perry, Reading lessons of a religious upbringing without modern books, The Guardian, 1 July 2014.
- ↑ Sublime Contagion
- ↑ Sarah Perry, The Genesis of 'After Me Comes the Flood', Shiny New Books, 2014.
- ↑ Gladstone's Library 2013 Writers in Residence
- 1 2 Rowan Mantell, Norfolk author Sarah Perry tipped for stardom with debut novel After Me Comes The Flood, EDP24, 27 June 2014
- ↑ Catherine Blyth, After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry, review: 'a dazzling new talent', The Telegraph, 15 July 2014.
- ↑ John Burnside, After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry review – a remarkable debut, The Guardian, 26 June 2014.
- ↑ "The Essex Serpent - Serpent's Tail Books". serpentstail.com. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
- ↑ 'A little unexpected', 2004 Shiva Naipaul prize article, The Spectator (The end of the article seems to be missing.)
- ↑ Sian Cain, Costa book award 2016 shortlists dominated by female writers, The Guardian, 22 November 2016.
- ↑ https://www.waterstones.com/book-awards/waterstones-book-of-the-year